 Heidi Drecksler Guest column by Heidi Drecksler about building quality professional relationships.
After a plethora of diverse experiences pertaining to my career, I have compiled some words of wisdom to help others along their path. Enjoy the following:
HEIDI’S PRACTICAL BUSINESS TIPS:
1) Do not deal with people who are opposed to leaving messages. I have learned this from experience. Ethical business professionals are perfectly comfortable sending detailed emails and voicemails. A person with nothing to hide will not be worried about having legal evidence of their communication with you. This seems obvious, but I’ve been shocked by those who claim to be substantial businesspeople and turn out to have skeletons in their closet when I question their unprofessional tendency of contacting me and not leaving a message. Most people have such busy lives and differing schedules, that texts, emails, and voicemails are a common & primary way of delivering important information. Anyone who is against leaving messages should be labeled with a Red Flag in your rolodex of associates.
2) Avoid those who bring prior experiences into their professional relationship with you. Recently I spoke to a businessman whose stress level was off the charts. He had never met me, nor done business with me, and yet decided it was acceptable to speak to me in a condescending, arrogant manner, interrupting me frequently. The person was riddled with baggage on every level. As a spiritual intuitive, I realized that nothing good would develop with this person, as he was communicating from a place of unresolved pain and self centeredness. As with any area of life (from friendships to major business deals) be sure the people in your circle have released their energetic and emotional blockages, so that your time with them will be as positive and productive as possible.
3) When dealing with other businesspeople, take account of their behavior and accomplishments. What is their reputation in the community? Do they generate large profits but leave an unpleasant impression at networking events? Check to see if their words and actions are aligned. Are there contradictions between what they report to you, and what their actual results look like? I have dealt with many “sweet talkers” who have impeccable presentation, but not much substance to fall back on when it’s time to make things happen. Be discerning and don’t hesitate to check their professional history. The last thing you want is to sign papers with someone who isn’t really what they claim to be.
4) My motto is: If you cannot be kind, conscious, and respectful, you will NOT have a working relationship with me. The best and longest lasting connections are those that are transparent and loving. Indeed, this is simple common sense, but recently, I’ve been surprised and turned off by the level of selfishness and secretiveness that exists in the business world. When dealing with someone directly, attitude & personality are as important as being able to produce major revenue. Otherwise, you may see your numbers grow, but you are unlikely to achieve longevity. From the onset, review your compatibility with an associate or colleague before making anything official.
When It’s Time For Sales and you’re ready to build a new marketing plan, it’s often a business owners first instinct to start pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, and building new clientèle one at a time. This is a great attitude to have–there is no time like the present and in some cases a business needs sales immediately to cover operating expenses.
The benefit of pounding the pavement is that it’s effective and can yield immediate results. The downfall is that when you stop, it stops. When your time becomes consumed in the office by the fruit of your marketing labor, your hours spent “pounding-the-pavement” decrease and so do your sales. This is a vicious cycle that many businesses become trapped in. Highs and lows. Dry skies and rainshowers. The good news is, it’s easy to plan ahead so you can make it rain all year.
Think of your marketing campaign as a stock portfolio–keep it diversified. Since your time is limited, in turn limit your Active Marketing to what makes the most money from the least amount of work. Marketing is really that simple. No idea is perfect so don’t wait. Trial and error is the key to Inductive Marketing. Do, however, put the proper time and attention into taking the ideas into fruition. Everyone laughs when they see obvious spelling or grammatical mistakes in an advertisement. Obvious mistakes due to carelessness are easy to spot and poor for your company’s image.
A few Active Marketing Techniques: target email lists, cold-calls, billboards, pay-per-click, radio spots, tv commercials, strategy imaging, magazine ads. Some of these ideas take time, others take money. Remember this formula and consider it when creating your marketing campaign: Time=Money. The only way to have enough of both is to balance each with respect to each other.
Residual Marketing is something you do once that continues to bring sales residually. One example is to list your business with Google Local Business Center and all online directories specific to your industry. Put your business in places where people already go to find the services you provide. Most directories give you a free listing and allow you to upgrade to a more attention-grabbing ad for a fee. If you set aside a small budget for this, I would only pay to be in directories that appear on the first page of Google. Why should you pay to be seen in a directory that no-one can find?
Optimizing your website for search engines is another way of Residual Marketing. You only have to optimize one website but you get to reach every person who searches for your products or services.
Your best Residual Marketing “technique” is to give impeccable customer service and run your business ethically and transparently. A solid reputation is money.
Remember to build your marketing & sales campaign using Active and Residual Marketing techniques. In future articles, I will expand on these techniques. For now, if you take one message from this article, have it be this–diversify your marketing campaign today to create easy sales for Future You.
Increasingly, businesses have been cutting advertising budgets and laying off employees because times are tough. Business owners, listen, you’re only digging yourself deeper.
NOW is the time to concentrate more than ever on GROWING your business. Negotiating the best deals on services and adhering to a budget are fundamentals to your business’s success… not things to only concentrate on when times are tough.
Before you do anything, make time for sales. Call existing clients and ask for referrals if you have no-where else to start. Over 50% of my clients have been referred to me through business owners that were extremely pleased with my services. Referrals are the lifeline of my business and should be yours too.
An owner of a painting company, Chris, walked into his office to greet his staff of six. With the amount of business he had lately, the office could easily operate with three including the office manager by reallocating responsibilities.
The problem, he knew, was that once business picked up, his office would need a full staff again. By then his current employees would have other jobs and he’d have to deal with the hassles and expenses of finding a new staff that were as talented as his last.
So Chris walks into his office and says “Good morning everyone. Business has beennoticeably slow lately so we have to make some changes.” Everyone starts to scufflein their seats. “I’m willing to offer you new jobs for the same pay. From now on you’re all in Sales.”
From the time his office opened its doors 8 years earlier, business had been great. The housing market was at an all time high and there were new construction sites on every street corner. Sales had never been an issue.
The next day I went to his office and gave his staff a crash course on cold calling. It wasn’t easy, but because Chris was honest with his employees about the financial condition of the business, everyone pulled together to help.
Four months later, his business has more sales than ever (literally) and he actually had to hire a bigger painting crew. He comments, “And to think, the housing market is still slow.. wait until it picks up.”
Chris is a positive example for all businesses facing the same dilemma. He used creative thinking and put his staff to work on the basics.. sales.
If you’d like me to speak to your staff about ways to increase sales, you can reach me at (828) 273-3031 or pauldrecksler@gmail.com
|
Featured Sites
- One Hundred Photographs
A community driven new media art advertising project concentrating on search engine optimization and social sharing.
- Debi Drecksler Blog
A wonderful blog by my mother about life, beauty, and the guy on the street.
- Blogazines.org
Directory of the best visual blogs online.
|
